Real Madrid (old thread)
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Beast
The Observer
Ken_rosseneri
New member
Madrid are playing much better this half
Ken_rosseneri
New member
After Kaka and ronaldo came off...it even became more boring
Cule Angles
Visca el filòsof!
Great FK from Sneijder, no celebration though.
aRegularAce
New member
wow nice freekick, gotta give him that
Junior Zanetti
New member
Real Sociedad v Real Madrid
HQ - x264 - WS - SPORTV - BRAZILIAN TV
0-1 BENZEMA
VIEW & DOWNLOAD
0-2 SNEIJDER
VIEW & DOWNLOAD
HQ - x264 - WS - SPORTV - BRAZILIAN TV
0-1 BENZEMA
VIEW & DOWNLOAD
0-2 SNEIJDER
VIEW & DOWNLOAD
Nándor
New member
a good game in terms of seeing kaká getting beter and better game by game...he's awesome, even at this stage it's a joy to watch him play. xabi alonso as well looks better game by game...not to the extend that kaká does of course, but you can see he is feeling more comfortable and is gaining more confidence.
the rest is buisness as usual, even though drenthe is improving dramatically compared to last season. however, i will wait until i see the reaction of the bernabeu and wether it will break drenthe again (if the crowed continues where they stopped last season).
now i'm looking forward to the game against dortmund :beer2: don't have to watch it on some shitty stream, since it'll be shown on tv here in germany.
EDIT:
zaragoza will meet tomorrow with the agents of negredo. it's claimed that negredo prefers a move to zaragoza instead of joining hull city.
the rest is buisness as usual, even though drenthe is improving dramatically compared to last season. however, i will wait until i see the reaction of the bernabeu and wether it will break drenthe again (if the crowed continues where they stopped last season).
now i'm looking forward to the game against dortmund :beer2: don't have to watch it on some shitty stream, since it'll be shown on tv here in germany.
EDIT:
zaragoza will meet tomorrow with the agents of negredo. it's claimed that negredo prefers a move to zaragoza instead of joining hull city.
Beast
The Observer
Thanks man.. one of the best FK's i've seen.. great to see Sneijder discovering his goal scoring touch again.. god knows he desperately need it .
next game we have vs Borussia Dortmund on the 19th.. i think it's time to look back @ the team and see where we are
- The team is still far from normal standard especially for the new boys , the difference is evident when those who played in the liga before take over from the new boys. guys like Robben-Granero-Negredo..etc provided much better performance than the likes of CR-Benzema...etc
- from the new signings Kaka is the only one who played with ease followed by Albiol.
- the defense does look better considerably with Metzelder-Drenthe -Torres-Albiol making strong case for themselves
- Lass not playing in the last few games affected the team performance greatly.. Xabi-Sneijder and Xabi-Guti didn't do a better job than Xabi-Lass (as seen in the Toronto game ) .
- CR, haven't done a good job in the games he played.. he might be under pressure from the expectations of everyone but it will take him some time and more smart thinking to find solutions , Kaka presence helped him but it was the Brazilian who was the key to the team moves most of the time.. i don't see CR hitting top gear before end of November/December .
- Benzema is still playing in Lyon, he still hang on the sides and try to move insider..i think Manu should give the Frenchman more focus as he need to realize R Madrid is not Lyon we don't need him to create but score, he need to stay in the center .
Although Benziza scored couple of goals one can't help to notice that the only good effort was Shamrock rovers goal.
- Robben has made it harder for Cristiano, the Dutch played some excellent games and his understanding with his team mates was far better. Robben staying will be a good thing as he has some points to prove .
- Negredo is a force of nature , the club is keen to keep him as a Natural successor for Ruud , every time the Spaniard played he was harder to mark and provided goals or assists for his team mates .
-Drenthe was a very good surprise this pre-season and his gaining praise from the press & the fans. Drenthe form is a clear case of difference in quality between Manu and Juande/Schuster.
- like wise Granero who looked great in all games , fitting the team various formation and providing the goods and excitement for the fans
- while the defense looks solid at times and the roles are clearer to everyone , the midfield and attack as a singly unit remains below expectation . there is lots of work to do in both department , while there could be little alternative for Xabi-Lass to back up the attack with one of Gago-Sneijder-Gra-jack of all trades-nero replacing Lass or Xabi according to each game .. the role of Kaka is identified and he is doing it the trio of CR-Benzema and any of Higuain-Raul and anyone else is still a puzzle . this area needs intensive focus from Pellegerini and some tactical idea's on how they play together (apart from giving the ball to kaka and run behind the defense ) need to be addressed very soon and by soon i mean from today till our opening game on the 31st vs Deportivo
- operation out. remains a mystery while all agree that VDV is definitely out the second man to leave remains a question no one can answer.. the current options are
Negredo to Hull/Zaragoza/Roma/Zenit
Gago to Atletico/some other team.
and the persistent rumor by some press every couple of days and our Nando that Robben and VDV or Sneijder to Munich with Ribery coming on board.
we still have 2 games left for the pre-season to end, one on the 19th vs B Dortmund and the other is Rosenborg in the Santiago Bernabeu trophy on the 24th of August.
F
FCB_Titi_LB
Guest
Ribery just said : "i never said i wanted to go to madrid. If i wanted to leave i would have said so."
+ "Alot of teams like Madrid,Barca,Chelsea and Manc u wanted me but the door is closed. i'm gonna stay with BM"
Btw,would be funny to see CR fail
it probably won't happen but imagine CR doesn't make the team after some bad year
+ "Alot of teams like Madrid,Barca,Chelsea and Manc u wanted me but the door is closed. i'm gonna stay with BM"
Btw,would be funny to see CR fail
it probably won't happen but imagine CR doesn't make the team after some bad year
R
Raul7gonzalez
Guest
AS claims that Zaragoza is close to capturing Negredo. Hull's offer is bigger, but Negredo wants stay in Spain and club will have a buyback option.
I am new to this forum and nice to see some Madridistas here. I've a query if you don't mind. I've been searching for a Real Madrid forum for English speaking fans, but haven't succeeded in finding one. By that I mean, the forum that is solely dedicated to Madrid just like this forum is to Barca, not the sub forums in soccer websites like Big Soccer. I found forums for English big four, Juventus, Inter, Milan and now this one, but was surprised to see nothing substantial coming up while searching for a Real Madrid forum on Google. So please help me if you know any such forum. Cheers.
I am new to this forum and nice to see some Madridistas here. I've a query if you don't mind. I've been searching for a Real Madrid forum for English speaking fans, but haven't succeeded in finding one. By that I mean, the forum that is solely dedicated to Madrid just like this forum is to Barca, not the sub forums in soccer websites like Big Soccer. I found forums for English big four, Juventus, Inter, Milan and now this one, but was surprised to see nothing substantial coming up while searching for a Real Madrid forum on Google. So please help me if you know any such forum. Cheers.
Beast
The Observer
looks like Negredo could be heading to Zaragoza.. although Zaragoza didn't offer enough money the buy back will also be close to nothing
now here is an article about Iker... shocking at some part to learn his dad was a Bilbao supporter
Iker Casillas on growing up for Real
In the following extract from A Beautiful Game, Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas opens up about signing for Madrid, grazing his knees, taking a shower - and being a European Champion…
I did an advertising campaign once and we chose the slogan: “I`m not a `Galáctico`, I`m from Móstoles!” That`s where I was born; it`s my home town: Móstoles. In truth, it`s not really a town any more; it`s a city that`s really growing at the moment and is starting to gain its own identity, with a population of over 200,000 people, many of whom work in Madrid. It`s a working-class place that is beginning to be a reference point in its own right, not just in the capital but further away too. It might have always been there as a suburb, serving Madrid, but it is much bigger now than, say, Soria, or Ávila, or Valladolid, which are all cities in their own right. I identify very closely with Móstoles: it`s where I was born and grew up, where I went to school. It`s where I became who I am and it`s still my home. I think it`s very important for a person to understand their roots – to know where they`ve come from – and that`s what my home town represents for me.
Móstoles is about 20 kilometres outside Madrid and its eyes are turned on the capital to some extent; you`re in Madrid in 15 or 20 minutes at the most. It used to feel further away though: communications and transport have really moved on. So has everything since I was a kid. When I was growing up, for example, there wasn`t the infrastructure for kids to play football that there is these days. Now, there are soccer schools and some lovely Astroturf pitches; there has been a huge effort made to get kids playing and to help them get a start in sport. Back then, though, we played on sand, gravel, or concrete. I played in the street, in the park, at school. I didn`t have the kind of organized football set up there is now. But, much as I think all that`s fantastic now, I don`t feel I missed out; I just loved playing football when I was a boy.
We used to go down to the park alongside the block of flats where I lived. We would set up games between the kids in my block and the kids from the block next door. Portal versus Portal. And we played like it was a European Cup final; everyone gave absolutely everything to win. It wasn`t a case of picking teams, of lads lining up to be chosen; instead, you nearly always played with your mates. We`d go off looking for other groups of boys to play against. I still see some of those lads; my friends from childhood were all kids I played football with. We still love the game but when we see each other now we don`t talk abut football so much: we talk about other things. I wasn`t from what you would call a football family, in terms of other members of the family making it as players. But my dad, José Luis, was always a big football fan. He had lived in Bilbao and was an Athletic supporter, but he also liked Real Madrid. Dad used to get me Athletic Bilbao kits as presents when I was little and I guess my love of football comes from him, a bit at least. Despite his connection to Athletic Bilbao, though, my team was always Real Madrid. I played a lot with Dad too. We`d go down to the park or onto a concrete pitch near our house and he`d take penalties at me. There was a school about 100 metres from our house and we would go there at the weekends. He`d take shots at me and could see that I wasn`t bad at saving them. He got me some gloves, and a goalkeeper top and that`s where it all started for me.
People say that it`s the kid who isn`t much good out on the pitch who goes in goal, but that wasn`t how it was for me. I never really played out, even when it was just mates having a kick about; I always went in goal. I always loved it. And I wasn`t the last one to get picked either. In fact, I always got picked first because they knew that I`d be the goalkeeper. My friends knew I liked going in goal and they loved that. Not so much because I was good, but because I was prepared to play there; it meant none of them had to! We played a lot of fútbol sala – futsal – which is five-a-side rather than 11-a-side. For a goalkeeper it`s a different game: you use your feet a lot more; the ball is smaller and the game is quicker.
When you`re a kid playing on concrete or gravel or in the park, especially as a goalkeeper, you have to learn how to fall properly or else you`ll do yourself some serious damage. When I look out across the grass pitches that Real Madrid have at our Valdebebas training ground, I think: “We`re so lucky.” They`re all grass, soft, a luxury to fall on! In fact, I look at those new generation Astroturf pitches they`re playing on in Móstoles now and I think those kids are lucky too. We used to fall over and rip ourselves on the gravel. I played with long trousers, knee pads, elbow pads: the lot! You had to, or else you`d tear yourself up: I used to get through so many pairs of trousers back then. But I think learning to play foot-ball in the street makes you a better player in some ways: you`re ready for unexpected bounces; there are more things to think about, more complications. And being ready for those can make you a better footballer, a better goalkeeper. People will have different opinions: some say that learning the hard way is the best. Certainly, it suited me. But others say that it`s better to give kids the very best facilities.
When you`re a boy, you play because you want to enjoy yourself and spend time with your friends, not because you`re trying to become a professional footballer. That`s something you dream about, of course: playing for your team, which in my case was Real Madrid. But it`s just that: a dream. It`s not until you start coming through at a club that you really think about a career in football as a genuine possibility. Once I joined Real Madrid and started making progress I did start to think about it, but, until that happens, you`re just playing for fun. When you join a club, it`s not only your attitude to football which changes; it`s your attitude to life as a whole. You find yourself mixing with different kids; you`re not just hanging around near home any more, loving football and playing with your friends. Your focus is completely different.
I don`t think my dad had hopes of me being a professional. Not real hopes, anyway. He just wanted me to enjoy myself. Every dad would love his son to be a footballer or a tennis player or whatever, but the most important thing for parents is always their children`s schoolwork. That`s how it was with mine. My mother, María del Carmen, was a hairdresser and didn`t particularly like football, but she was happy that I enjoyed it and supported me as much as she could. It was always her who had to deal with the kit too. I`d come home and it would be filthy or ripped. Or both. She sometimes got to the point where she couldn`t take it any more! I`d come home and hand her this pile: well, it`s funny looking back, the memories are fond, but I realize what my parents did for me. Mum must have been washing stuff every single night.
I didn`t watch as much football when I was young as kids do now; there weren`t as many televised games, for a start. Now there`s a game on telly every day it seems! I used to go to some Real Madrid games at the stadium, though, and the Bernabéu was a place that left a really powerful impression on me. But it was a long way away: the metro, a bus, and then a walk. So I didn`t go very often. It was a real effort to get to the ground but, when I did, I used to watch from the very top, the third tier, in a stand along the side of the stadium. Whenever I could, I`d try to find a way of getting lower down, closer to the pitch. When you`re a kid you want to see the players close up, of course: stars like Davor Šuker and Iván Zamorano. It was incredible.
My real boyhood heroes were always goalkeepers: Buyo, Cañizares, Schmeichel. Goalkeepers are different but I don`t think we`re special or outcasts. As a kid I liked everything to do with football, even though my attention was always on the goalies. We`re all players; just playing in different positions, that`s all. You know, when you become a professional, your attitude changes a little but you still have to have a sense of hope and desire. And you have to enjoy playing football. If you have that, you`re fine. If you lose it, you might as well leave the game; you might as well retire. When you no longer have something you feel you`re aiming for, you might as well give football up.
I joined Real Madrid at the age of nine. I had never had a team before, not even a school team: I`d only played with my dad and my mates. The only club I`ve ever had has been Real Madrid. There were some trials at a school near my house one day. Some people in my neighbourhood said, “Hey, you`re a pretty good goalie; why don`t you give it a go?” So I did. My dad took me along – it was a kind of open day – and that`s where they saw me. That first time, I was just a little boy, eight years old. They told me I was a bit too small and that I should come back the following year. They told me they`d call, and they did. About five months later, they called me in for another trial. They gave me a go, chose me and that was it. That was where organized football began for me.
While you`re growing up, parents invest an enormous amount in you as a footballer and as a person. Without them I can`t imagine anyone being able to make it. I mean, you might see a kid who`s a great footballer but what you don`t see is his parents there with the car, ready to pick him up and take him to training sessions and games, often making real sacrifices for their boy. When I was a kid, my parents used to have to take me from Móstoles to Madrid and back and, in those days, the road wasn`t the big motorway it is now. And we didn`t have the car we have now, that`s for sure! They made sacrifices: Dad started a law course but had to give it up when he started taking me to Madrid for training and didn`t have enough time to study as well. He would go in to work at seven in the morning – he was a functionary for the Ministry of Education – and come home for lunch at three. Then, at four, he`d get me in the car and take me up to training in the city.
Joining Real Madrid was strange for me, a completely different experience. I`d always played on the streets with my mates or my dad and then gone home. Now, suddenly, I had to grow up really quickly, even though I was only nine years old. I met new kids; I was thrown in with people I didn`t know. One particular example: we had to have showers together. It might seem silly, but I had never had to shower with other kids before; I`d never had to get undressed in public! I had always gone home to wash. But now? Taking my clothes off in front of other people? I felt really embarrassed. New experiences can make you feel uncomfortable; they force you to change and to grow up quickly. I had to learn things I`d never expected to have to learn, things I`d never even thought about.
Life for me, aged nine, at Madrid was a challenge. But hard? No, I wouldn`t call it hard. It was just new: new experiences and a new way of thinking. I`d never really thought of Real Madrid as having a youth system or a kids` team. Madrid was Madrid: the famous players. I never imagined this group of kids being part of what Madrid was about too. I`d never imagined the club had so many teams, so many lads on their books. In fact, nor had my mum! She thought my dad must have been making it all up: “Why would Madrid have a big team for boys who are just nine or ten years old?” Anyway, I was suddenly thrown into a whole new world. It seemed crazy. I`d have to travel 40 minutes to come into Madrid and train; it felt then like it was so far away. It was somewhere I`d only ever been to if Mum had to go to the dentist or something. And now I was there all the time. Madrid: the big city. Madre mía!
I think football has always been important in Spain, but, since we won the European championships in 2008, I think it has become even more important for us as a society. There`s always been a kind of flatness about Spain as a football nation, a lack of hope and a sense of disillusion about ourselves. Our clubs did well but the selección never did. We lacked that inspiration a national team can give the country but I think we`ve found it now. It`s something palpable. In the past, playing for Spain felt edgy; people would give up when things went wrong and there wasn`t that sense of hope, that shared sense of joy that we have now.
People are proud of the national team these days; rather than letting their heads drop, they puff out their chests. And that filters down through football all over the country, right down to the kids kicking a ball around with their mates. Now you go out on the street and the atmosphere is different; it`s lovely. That comes from Spain winning and, when a team wins, everyone wants to experience that sensation again. People look forward to the major tournaments now. That wasn`t the case before. Sure, you can lose. But there`s hope now and a sense of anticipation. When we were boys we dreamt about playing for Madrid, but people didn`t really talk about playing for Spain. Now, though, I think kids are beginning to do that: maybe, after Euro 2008, they have a new dream.
© 2009 Tom Watt. Extract from A Beautiful Game by Tom Watt, reproduced with kind permission from Abrams publishers.
-----------------------------------------
If you enjoyed reading the above as much as we did, there`s plenty more like that from some of the biggest names in the game in the book A Beautiful Game. For this unique collaborative project, football writer, actor and broadcaster Tom Watt talked to the world`s top footballers about growing up and falling in love with the sport: Argentina`s Lionel Messi and Brazil`s Gilberto Silva; England`s David James and Scotland`s Craig Gordon; Italy`s Fabio Cannavaro, Spain`s Iker Casillas and France`s Franck Ribery; South Africa`s Benni McCarthy and Nigeria`s Nwankwo Kanu; the USA`s Landon Donovan and Shunsuke Nakamura from Japan; and, the world`s most famous player, David Beckham. The player`s own words offer a rare, emotive and striking insight into childhood all over the world and celebrate football`s ability to touch the lives of kids - and adults - wherever the beautiful game is played.
now here is an article about Iker... shocking at some part to learn his dad was a Bilbao supporter
Iker Casillas on growing up for Real
In the following extract from A Beautiful Game, Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas opens up about signing for Madrid, grazing his knees, taking a shower - and being a European Champion…
I did an advertising campaign once and we chose the slogan: “I`m not a `Galáctico`, I`m from Móstoles!” That`s where I was born; it`s my home town: Móstoles. In truth, it`s not really a town any more; it`s a city that`s really growing at the moment and is starting to gain its own identity, with a population of over 200,000 people, many of whom work in Madrid. It`s a working-class place that is beginning to be a reference point in its own right, not just in the capital but further away too. It might have always been there as a suburb, serving Madrid, but it is much bigger now than, say, Soria, or Ávila, or Valladolid, which are all cities in their own right. I identify very closely with Móstoles: it`s where I was born and grew up, where I went to school. It`s where I became who I am and it`s still my home. I think it`s very important for a person to understand their roots – to know where they`ve come from – and that`s what my home town represents for me.
Móstoles is about 20 kilometres outside Madrid and its eyes are turned on the capital to some extent; you`re in Madrid in 15 or 20 minutes at the most. It used to feel further away though: communications and transport have really moved on. So has everything since I was a kid. When I was growing up, for example, there wasn`t the infrastructure for kids to play football that there is these days. Now, there are soccer schools and some lovely Astroturf pitches; there has been a huge effort made to get kids playing and to help them get a start in sport. Back then, though, we played on sand, gravel, or concrete. I played in the street, in the park, at school. I didn`t have the kind of organized football set up there is now. But, much as I think all that`s fantastic now, I don`t feel I missed out; I just loved playing football when I was a boy.
We used to go down to the park alongside the block of flats where I lived. We would set up games between the kids in my block and the kids from the block next door. Portal versus Portal. And we played like it was a European Cup final; everyone gave absolutely everything to win. It wasn`t a case of picking teams, of lads lining up to be chosen; instead, you nearly always played with your mates. We`d go off looking for other groups of boys to play against. I still see some of those lads; my friends from childhood were all kids I played football with. We still love the game but when we see each other now we don`t talk abut football so much: we talk about other things. I wasn`t from what you would call a football family, in terms of other members of the family making it as players. But my dad, José Luis, was always a big football fan. He had lived in Bilbao and was an Athletic supporter, but he also liked Real Madrid. Dad used to get me Athletic Bilbao kits as presents when I was little and I guess my love of football comes from him, a bit at least. Despite his connection to Athletic Bilbao, though, my team was always Real Madrid. I played a lot with Dad too. We`d go down to the park or onto a concrete pitch near our house and he`d take penalties at me. There was a school about 100 metres from our house and we would go there at the weekends. He`d take shots at me and could see that I wasn`t bad at saving them. He got me some gloves, and a goalkeeper top and that`s where it all started for me.
People say that it`s the kid who isn`t much good out on the pitch who goes in goal, but that wasn`t how it was for me. I never really played out, even when it was just mates having a kick about; I always went in goal. I always loved it. And I wasn`t the last one to get picked either. In fact, I always got picked first because they knew that I`d be the goalkeeper. My friends knew I liked going in goal and they loved that. Not so much because I was good, but because I was prepared to play there; it meant none of them had to! We played a lot of fútbol sala – futsal – which is five-a-side rather than 11-a-side. For a goalkeeper it`s a different game: you use your feet a lot more; the ball is smaller and the game is quicker.
When you`re a kid playing on concrete or gravel or in the park, especially as a goalkeeper, you have to learn how to fall properly or else you`ll do yourself some serious damage. When I look out across the grass pitches that Real Madrid have at our Valdebebas training ground, I think: “We`re so lucky.” They`re all grass, soft, a luxury to fall on! In fact, I look at those new generation Astroturf pitches they`re playing on in Móstoles now and I think those kids are lucky too. We used to fall over and rip ourselves on the gravel. I played with long trousers, knee pads, elbow pads: the lot! You had to, or else you`d tear yourself up: I used to get through so many pairs of trousers back then. But I think learning to play foot-ball in the street makes you a better player in some ways: you`re ready for unexpected bounces; there are more things to think about, more complications. And being ready for those can make you a better footballer, a better goalkeeper. People will have different opinions: some say that learning the hard way is the best. Certainly, it suited me. But others say that it`s better to give kids the very best facilities.
When you`re a boy, you play because you want to enjoy yourself and spend time with your friends, not because you`re trying to become a professional footballer. That`s something you dream about, of course: playing for your team, which in my case was Real Madrid. But it`s just that: a dream. It`s not until you start coming through at a club that you really think about a career in football as a genuine possibility. Once I joined Real Madrid and started making progress I did start to think about it, but, until that happens, you`re just playing for fun. When you join a club, it`s not only your attitude to football which changes; it`s your attitude to life as a whole. You find yourself mixing with different kids; you`re not just hanging around near home any more, loving football and playing with your friends. Your focus is completely different.
I don`t think my dad had hopes of me being a professional. Not real hopes, anyway. He just wanted me to enjoy myself. Every dad would love his son to be a footballer or a tennis player or whatever, but the most important thing for parents is always their children`s schoolwork. That`s how it was with mine. My mother, María del Carmen, was a hairdresser and didn`t particularly like football, but she was happy that I enjoyed it and supported me as much as she could. It was always her who had to deal with the kit too. I`d come home and it would be filthy or ripped. Or both. She sometimes got to the point where she couldn`t take it any more! I`d come home and hand her this pile: well, it`s funny looking back, the memories are fond, but I realize what my parents did for me. Mum must have been washing stuff every single night.
I didn`t watch as much football when I was young as kids do now; there weren`t as many televised games, for a start. Now there`s a game on telly every day it seems! I used to go to some Real Madrid games at the stadium, though, and the Bernabéu was a place that left a really powerful impression on me. But it was a long way away: the metro, a bus, and then a walk. So I didn`t go very often. It was a real effort to get to the ground but, when I did, I used to watch from the very top, the third tier, in a stand along the side of the stadium. Whenever I could, I`d try to find a way of getting lower down, closer to the pitch. When you`re a kid you want to see the players close up, of course: stars like Davor Šuker and Iván Zamorano. It was incredible.
My real boyhood heroes were always goalkeepers: Buyo, Cañizares, Schmeichel. Goalkeepers are different but I don`t think we`re special or outcasts. As a kid I liked everything to do with football, even though my attention was always on the goalies. We`re all players; just playing in different positions, that`s all. You know, when you become a professional, your attitude changes a little but you still have to have a sense of hope and desire. And you have to enjoy playing football. If you have that, you`re fine. If you lose it, you might as well leave the game; you might as well retire. When you no longer have something you feel you`re aiming for, you might as well give football up.
I joined Real Madrid at the age of nine. I had never had a team before, not even a school team: I`d only played with my dad and my mates. The only club I`ve ever had has been Real Madrid. There were some trials at a school near my house one day. Some people in my neighbourhood said, “Hey, you`re a pretty good goalie; why don`t you give it a go?” So I did. My dad took me along – it was a kind of open day – and that`s where they saw me. That first time, I was just a little boy, eight years old. They told me I was a bit too small and that I should come back the following year. They told me they`d call, and they did. About five months later, they called me in for another trial. They gave me a go, chose me and that was it. That was where organized football began for me.
While you`re growing up, parents invest an enormous amount in you as a footballer and as a person. Without them I can`t imagine anyone being able to make it. I mean, you might see a kid who`s a great footballer but what you don`t see is his parents there with the car, ready to pick him up and take him to training sessions and games, often making real sacrifices for their boy. When I was a kid, my parents used to have to take me from Móstoles to Madrid and back and, in those days, the road wasn`t the big motorway it is now. And we didn`t have the car we have now, that`s for sure! They made sacrifices: Dad started a law course but had to give it up when he started taking me to Madrid for training and didn`t have enough time to study as well. He would go in to work at seven in the morning – he was a functionary for the Ministry of Education – and come home for lunch at three. Then, at four, he`d get me in the car and take me up to training in the city.
Joining Real Madrid was strange for me, a completely different experience. I`d always played on the streets with my mates or my dad and then gone home. Now, suddenly, I had to grow up really quickly, even though I was only nine years old. I met new kids; I was thrown in with people I didn`t know. One particular example: we had to have showers together. It might seem silly, but I had never had to shower with other kids before; I`d never had to get undressed in public! I had always gone home to wash. But now? Taking my clothes off in front of other people? I felt really embarrassed. New experiences can make you feel uncomfortable; they force you to change and to grow up quickly. I had to learn things I`d never expected to have to learn, things I`d never even thought about.
Life for me, aged nine, at Madrid was a challenge. But hard? No, I wouldn`t call it hard. It was just new: new experiences and a new way of thinking. I`d never really thought of Real Madrid as having a youth system or a kids` team. Madrid was Madrid: the famous players. I never imagined this group of kids being part of what Madrid was about too. I`d never imagined the club had so many teams, so many lads on their books. In fact, nor had my mum! She thought my dad must have been making it all up: “Why would Madrid have a big team for boys who are just nine or ten years old?” Anyway, I was suddenly thrown into a whole new world. It seemed crazy. I`d have to travel 40 minutes to come into Madrid and train; it felt then like it was so far away. It was somewhere I`d only ever been to if Mum had to go to the dentist or something. And now I was there all the time. Madrid: the big city. Madre mía!
I think football has always been important in Spain, but, since we won the European championships in 2008, I think it has become even more important for us as a society. There`s always been a kind of flatness about Spain as a football nation, a lack of hope and a sense of disillusion about ourselves. Our clubs did well but the selección never did. We lacked that inspiration a national team can give the country but I think we`ve found it now. It`s something palpable. In the past, playing for Spain felt edgy; people would give up when things went wrong and there wasn`t that sense of hope, that shared sense of joy that we have now.
People are proud of the national team these days; rather than letting their heads drop, they puff out their chests. And that filters down through football all over the country, right down to the kids kicking a ball around with their mates. Now you go out on the street and the atmosphere is different; it`s lovely. That comes from Spain winning and, when a team wins, everyone wants to experience that sensation again. People look forward to the major tournaments now. That wasn`t the case before. Sure, you can lose. But there`s hope now and a sense of anticipation. When we were boys we dreamt about playing for Madrid, but people didn`t really talk about playing for Spain. Now, though, I think kids are beginning to do that: maybe, after Euro 2008, they have a new dream.
© 2009 Tom Watt. Extract from A Beautiful Game by Tom Watt, reproduced with kind permission from Abrams publishers.
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If you enjoyed reading the above as much as we did, there`s plenty more like that from some of the biggest names in the game in the book A Beautiful Game. For this unique collaborative project, football writer, actor and broadcaster Tom Watt talked to the world`s top footballers about growing up and falling in love with the sport: Argentina`s Lionel Messi and Brazil`s Gilberto Silva; England`s David James and Scotland`s Craig Gordon; Italy`s Fabio Cannavaro, Spain`s Iker Casillas and France`s Franck Ribery; South Africa`s Benni McCarthy and Nigeria`s Nwankwo Kanu; the USA`s Landon Donovan and Shunsuke Nakamura from Japan; and, the world`s most famous player, David Beckham. The player`s own words offer a rare, emotive and striking insight into childhood all over the world and celebrate football`s ability to touch the lives of kids - and adults - wherever the beautiful game is played.
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